RCR & Scholarly Activity In-Person Training
Introduction
Why is UK mandating RCR training?
“As a public institution of higher education, public confidence in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) by faculty, staff and students is critical. We must promote and maintain a culture that is supported by an infrastructure that educates and assists in the ethical conduct of research.”
Lisa Cassis PhD, UK Vice President for Research (VPR)
UK has had research misconduct cases in the past few years due to a failure of some researchers to follow Responsible Conduct of Research.
This effects:
- The reputation of UK and its researchers;
- Researchers/research personnel affiliated with the wrongdoer;
- Personnel managing the process for research misconduct;
- Researchers doing honest work that could have received the research funding used;
- General public if faulty data is used in publications is relied upon by the medical community, product development, etc.
Areas of RCR Training at UK
- Mentoring
- Conflict of Interest
- Peer Review
- Research Misconduct
- Data Management
- Reproducibility
What Will The Rest of the Day Look Like?
- Observe 3 case studies
- Discuss in groups
- Summarize key points
Must have minimum 1 hour of contact together
Case Study One
Research Misconduct
Let’s talk plagiarism!
Through this case, learners will:
- learn about ethical issues with regard to plagiarism
- learn about available plagiarism resources
- consider ethical writing practices
Discussion
- Sum up the general problem under scrutiny.
- What aspects of the scenario stood out the most to the group.
- Was the graduate student right to be concerned about this practice?
- What do you think of the post-doc’s explanation for why he used old papers?
- What might happen if the PI does not change the text before publication.
- What do you think of GS’ decision to not talk to anyone about her concerns?
- What could happen is she does pursue this line of questioning?
- What would you do in her place?
Additional Resources
- UK’s Research Misconduct webpage: https://www.research.uky.edu/research-misconduct
- DHHS ORI’s Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research: https://ori.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2018-04/rcrintro.pdf
- DHHS ORI’s Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: A Guide to Ethical Writing:
- Online plagiarism tools:
- Plagiarisma (free online plagiarism checker): http://plagiarisma.net/
- iThenticate (subscription required online plagiarism checker): https://www.research.uky.edu/research-misconduct/ithenticate-uk
- Plagiarismcheck.org (detects similarities and produces unbiased results; requires a subscription): https://plagiarismcheck.org/
- Similarity texter (a text comparison tool): https://people.f4.htwberlin.de/%7Eweberwu/simtexter/app.html
- UK ORI’s tips to avoid plagiarism video: https://rwebmedia.ad.uky.edu/ORI/Research_Misconduct/Plagiarism/index.html
Case Study Two
Peer Review
In this session, learners will consider misconduct during the peer review process.
Through this case, learners will:
- learn about ethical conduct related to the peer review process
Discussion
- What are the issues raised by this case?
- What are the rules for serving as a reviewer of grant proposals? How can those rules be enforced?
- Should proposals be reviewed by people who do not work in your field? Why or why not?
- Can we ensure that reviewers do not gain an unfair advantage when conducting research and competing for funding when they get to read other researcher’s confidential and innovative proposals? If so, how?
- Under what circumstances would you file a complaint? What are the pros and cons of reporting such theft as a form of misconduct? To whom should the complaint be reported?
- Have you ever had anyone steal one of your research ideas? How did you deal with it, and what lessons did you learn?
Additional Resources
- ORI Introduction to RCR: Chapter 10. Peer Review: https://ori.hhs.gov/content/chapter-10-peer-review-Preserving-confidentiality
- ORI Peer-review resources: https://ori.hhs.gov/peer-review-0
- ORI Conflict of interest resources: https://ori.hhs.gov/conflicts-interest-and-commitment
Case Study Three
Safe Work Environment
In this session, learners will learn about harassment and methods for reporting this misconduct at the University.
Through this case, learners will:
- learn about harassment
- consider how to respond to harassment issues
- learn how to report harassment at the University
Discussion
- What are the issues raised by this case?
- What should Nicole do? If her PI is unwilling to meet, is there anyone else she can contact to try and resolve the situation?
- What are ways you can help prevent harassment in academia?
Additional Resources
- UK’s Policy on Harassment: https://www.uky.edu/eeo/discrimination-harassment; https://www.uky.edu/regs/sites/www.uky.edu.regs/files/files/ar/ar6-1.pdf
- Resources on Harassment: https://www.nsf.gov/od/oecr/harassment.jsp
- NIH Anti-Sexual Harassment webpage: https://www.nih.gov/anti-sexual-harassment
- UK Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity: https://www.uky.edu/eeo/
- UK Violence Intervention and Prevention office: https://www.uky.edu/vipcenter/
Feedback
Reflect
- What were your big takeaways from the training today?
- What lingering questions do you still have regarding the content?
- How might you improve this training speciically for faculty in SIS in the future?
Case Studies
Post-session RCR Case Study Survey - https://uky.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_79CaFBt2jglwtMi
Thank you!!
Questions? Don.Helme@uky.edu